The Begin of the Next Great QB..... Dak Prescott!!!!

          On October 23, 2006, the Dallas Cowboys were taking on division rivalry New York Giants. Drew Bledsoe had been stinking it up the entire season and most fans wanted to see the young backup quarterback Tony Romo. Romo had an amazing preseason that year and dazzled Cowboys nation with great throws, and even better athleticism. In comparison to Drew Bledsoe’s two left feet, Romo was Michael Vick! It was that Giants game when Coach Bill Parcels has seen enough of Bledsoe and turned to Romo. Tony Romo would go onto have a great career with the Cowboys. More importantly, Romo was the savior of the franchise after seeing Troy Aikman retire. Fast forward 10 years and the Cowboys may have found them their next Troy Aikman.

            While Tony Romo had a great career, it wasn’t without turmoil. He struggled in the postseason. Missed most of the 2010 and 2015 seasons with a broken collarbone. Throw in that Romo didn’t practice much of the 2014 season because he had a fractured bone in his back. The guy that was sent here to save the Cowboys from the slums was damaged goods and the Cowboys knew it.

            The Cowboys understood that Romo wasn’t going to be able to physically play too many more years in the NFL. He may have wanted to gut it out, in an attempt to win a super bowl title. After going 4-12 in 2015 the Cowboys couldn’t put the franchise in the hands of Matt Cassel, Brandon Weedon, or Kellen Moore again if Romo went down. They went into the 2016 draft with the intentions on getting a quarterback that they could groom to be Tony Romo’s replacement. Carson Wentz and Jared Goff were the two best quarterbacks in the draft that year. The Cowboys didn’t want to use up resources to move up to the one or two spots to grab one of them. They had they eye on Paxton Lynch later in the draft if he fell to a spot that the Cowboy’s deemed reasonable enough to make a move back into the round to get him. Lynch fell to the 26^th pick of the first round, but it was Denver that was able to pull of the move to land Lynch. As a Cowboy’s fan I’m glad it happened that way. What did happen was the beginning of something special.

            The Dallas Cowboys coaching staff was tasked with coaching the Senior Bowl in 2016 and it was there they found a gem. Dak Prescott was one of the quarterbacks that participated in the 2016 senior bowl game. The Cowboys coaching staff had to choose between Jacoby Brissette, Jake Coker, Brandon Allen and Dak Prescott. Let’s be honest, aside from Brissette, who attended small time North Carolina State, there was no way the Cowboys couldn’t go with Dak Prescott. He played in the SEC at Mississippi State University. In 2014 Prescott, lead the Bulldogs to a #1 ranking four straight weeks before losing to Alabama. That year the Bulldogs finished with a 10-2 record and lost their bowl game. Prescott had the talent and a college resume that put him in front of those other guys.

            The Cowboys coaching staff was extremely impressed with Dak Prescott when they conducted the initial interviews with the team. Quarterbacks coach Wade Wilson said “By far Dak was the most assertive and confident player in there”, “Whatever that 'it' factor is, he had it above the other three. Very confident and very poised in the interview process,” when talking about Prescott at the senior bowl. The Cowboys liked Dak so much that they invited him in for a private workout before the draft. It’s been documented that the Cowboys really wanted Johnny Manziel in 2014, but instead went with Zack Martin. The Cowboy also wanted Paxton Lynch in 2016, but instead went with Zeke at number four, and took Dak in the 4^th round. Maybe I should be blogging about the JAGs (Just A Guy) that the Cowboys avoided drafting.

            Kellen Moore broke his leg early in training camp and was supposed to be the backup quarterback behind Tony Romo. The backup quarterback was a very important position because of Romo’s injury concerns. Moore going down elevated Prescott to the number two spot. The Cowboys could have gone out and signed a veteran quarterback but they didn’t. Tony Romo didn’t play the first preseason game, for precautionary reasons. Romo played three drives in the second preseason game and then was injured in the third preseason game. If Romo wasn’t playing that much in the preseason who was? Dak Prescott!

            Prescott was lighting the league on fire in the 2016 preseason. Fans began to understand why the team didn’t go out and bring in a veteran quarterback when Moore went down. They also began to see what the team had in a 4^th round rookie quarterback. Prescott came in for an injured Romo in the third preseason game, against a Seahawks team that smelled blood in the water, and held his own. He was chosen to be the Cowboys starter while Romo recovered from another injury. The Cowboys took Dak because they didn’t know when Romo would have to hang up his cleats. There was no way they would know that he wouldn’t even make it out of preseason. Romo was scheduled to miss 6-10 weeks and the Cowboys couldn’t afford another 4-12 season. What were they going to do? Who was going to play quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys? Dak Prescott!

            Dak Prescott took over as the starting quarterback in 2016 and hasn’t looked back. Some fans viewed him as a placeholder until Romo came back. Some fans didn’t think he was good enough to be a starting quarterback. In his first season, all he did was break Tom Brady’s record for most pass attempts completed without an interception to start a career. He also lead the Cowboys on a 11-game win streak, to the best record in football, and the number one overall seed in the NFC conference. That was just some of the things that Dak did in his first season.

            Now 24 games into his young career, Dak Prescott ranks third behind Kurt (104.9) Warner and Dan Marino (103.8) with a 102.3 quarterback rating over that time. That’s great company to be in! In two seasons he has completed 66% of his passes, has an interception ratio of 1.1 (39 TDs-8 Ints), and has won 18 of his 24 games. He also has more rushing touchdowns than any other quarterback since entering the league (10).  What else does Prescott need to do before we start putting him up there with the other great young quarterbacks? I will agree that Wentz appears to be a special talent. Cam Newton and Russell Wilson have already accomplished great things in this league. The question is how do you stop a quarterback that runs like Cam, throws on the run like Wilson, and has the accuracy of Rogers? The short answer is you don’t, the long answer is that we will see where he stacks up after winning a super bowl or two!